I spent several weeks working on this letter, sending it through several drafts, until finally I'd crafted it into one of the finer pieces I'd written up to that date. I stuck it in an envelope and sent it off to the White House, sending another copy to Simon's Rock for my collegeapplication.

I couldn't believe it. I was absolutely shocked. Sure, it was a form letter. That wasn't what suprised me. I had expected to get a form letter. No one can possibly be expected to answer all the mail that a person as prominent as the President of the United States of America. But what really hurt, what forever destroyed my faith in the American government as a reasonably competent body, was the simple fact that they couldn't even send the right form letter!